PARIS -- He is the accidental tourist.

Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands had never won a Grand Slam singles match before this year's French Open. With a goofy exuberance that has endeared him to the sophisticated crowds at Roland Garros, Verkerk has won all six of his matches, the most recent Friday's 7-6 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (0) dismantling of Guillermo Coria. If he wins one more on Sunday he will be the unlikeliest of champions.

	Martin Verkerk has a 28-28 career record.

"How it comes, I cannot explain this," said Verkerk, ranked No. 66 in the world and the longest shot here since Gustavo Kuerten won in 1997. "I mean, this is a dream. This is actually a bit of a joke. I don't know anymore what happened to me."

His opponent, on the other hand, is supposed to be here. Juan Carlos Ferrero reached the semifinals in his first two French Open appearances, then the final a year ago. Oddmakers, seizing on that progression, made him the favorite entering the tournament. Nothing has changed now that he's made his second straight final.

Ferrero, the No. 3 seed, made (relatively) short work of defending champion Albert Costa 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

"He (Verkerk) is playing with great confidence," Ferrero said. "He has beaten many great players here. He's a little surprise, no?"

For Costa -- who defended his championship here with an admirable doggedness -- it was an inevitable end. He had won four five-set matches to reach the semifinal, something that only happened five times in major events. The caveat? None of those five players survived to win the tournament; they simply ran out of gas.

Costa's mind was willing, but his body was broken. Ferrero, at 23, was four years younger and had spent seven hours and 23 minutes less on the court through five matches. His legs, in the end, were fresher.

In a rematch of last year's final, Ferrero won the first set comfortably and came back from a 2-4 deficit in the second-set tiebreaker. A break in the seventh game of the final set proved the end for Costa.

Does the win mean more this year after losing it in last year's final?

"For the moment, I'm the same happy as last year," Ferrero said. "I have the chance to win again. And that is what I want to do."

At 24, Verkerk has to be classified as a late bloomer. He is not a member of the over-publicized Spanish Armada or the Gauchos Argentina. Call him the Late-Flying Dutchman.

"I grew up a little late, not with the length, but to get an adult, you know, be smart," Verkerk said in his wonderfully delirious English. "I was just too young, like a young duck, just walking around. (Saying), 'Look how talented I am,' you know? Going out a little. I was not focused on the job.

"Then things happen and you start thinking, 'OK, do you always want to be the guy that should have been good? He had the talent, but not the mentality, not the concentration.

"So you say, 'OK, I want to do it myself. I want to show myself. I want to show people who I am."

He has a huge serve and a gorgeous, heavy backhand, but his head was not quite right. He almost quit tennis. Twice. And then at the end of January, in Milan he got dialed in. He won all five of his matches, the last one against Yevgeny Kafelnikov. It was his first ATP victory and it gave him confidence. He made the quarterfinals in Rome (losing to Kafelnikov) and semifinals (falling to Nikolay Davydenko) in Austria the week before the French.

Still, his record coming in was a middling 14-14 -- his career ATP mark is now 28-28. There was nothing to suggest that he would do this. He knocked off Vince Spadea in the third round, then No. 11 seed Rainer Schuettler in the fourth and, amazingly, former champion Carlos Moya, the No. 4 seed in the quarterfinals. Verkerk, it should be remembered, saved two match points in the Moya match.

"If you said one year ago to me, 'You going to play Carlos Moya at Roland Garros quarterfinal and you beat him,'" Verkerk said. "I was going to say, 'OK, let's take a lot of beers and then I'll probably believe you.'"

Against Coria, his big serving continued -- he had 19 aces for the match and a tournament-high 112. Coria lost his temper early and often, at one point heaving his racket so hard that only a deft duck by a ballboy prevented him from landing a direct hit. Coria could have been disqualified if he had found the mark.

"The thing is, it just flew out of my hands," Coria said. "I didn't mean anything about it, and I apologized three or four times. I really felt very, very badly."

Verkerk had already won the first two sets from Coria, one of the best clay-court players in the game, but the third-set tiebreaker was ridiculous. Verkerk won all seven points.

His post-match celebrations have been the stuff of theater and Verkerk did not disappoint after taking out Coria. He fell to his back along the baseline, clasping his head in his large hands. After he struggled to his feet, there were tears in his eyes.

"Some things are going through your head like your whole life," Verkerk said. "It was already change to be in quarterfinal, but to make a final of a Grand Slam, I don't know what's going to happen with me.

"I think it's not so good for me to talk about why (tears) came because I think then I'm going to cry again."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.